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Barrier Master

Barrier Master

The company scooped the CIHT/Ringway Innovation award for ‘Barrier Master’. A new product to excavate vehicle restraint systems (VRS) making the process safer and efficient.

The teams at A-one+ based in Wakefield and Darlington challenged industry standard methods which had been established for over 30 years by examining the current approach and exploring a number of alternatives. Working together with PostPullers (UK) they developed a range of trials, undertook extensive research and created a prototype.

In early 2015 the development of Barrier Master became complete with various size models suitable for attaching to an excavator or lorry mounted crane. The Barrier Master range became widely available to the maintenance industry in June 2015.

Benefits include:

Improved safety methods compared to original methods

Fewer lane closure hours

Reduction in annual congestion costs

Lower repair costs

Increased whole network safety through more outputs and less repairs increased efficiencies.

Judges’ commented that Barrier Master stood out on many levels. Given the safety critical nature of removing VRS, Barrier Master provides a highly effective and efficient method of hydraulically extracting embedded posts. The judges were particularly impressed with its contribution to workforce safety, by virtue of its operating method, whereby 100% of extraction force is transferred back into the ground and its operating agility, providing a much higher extraction rate than traditional methods, greatly reducing exposure time.

The judges were strongly of the view that Barrier Master innovation has made significant contribution to the operational and safety performance of post removal.

Managing Director for A-one+ Clive Leadbetter, said; “Much of the work we carry out on the network is road-side and the safety and wellbeing of our all our staff is a top priority.

“Barrier Master is pioneering for highways maintenance in terms of safety and road user benefits and we are proud to receive recognition from CIHT for something that will go the extra mile in keeping our people safe and the network moving.”

A-one+ was also highly commended in the Health & Safety at Work Award for its Better Health at Work programme. The scheme actively promotes and drives a health, safety and wellbeing culture and is delivered through targeted campaigns with local partners.

Judges felt that this demonstrated a strong focus on wellbeing including prevention of skin cancer, addressing mental health needs and that it brought together a wide range of techniques and best practice alongside some innovative and unique elements to provide a holistic approach to work life balance.

The awards took place at a prestigious ceremony on Thursday 9 June at the Pavilion at the Tower of London.

A-one+ is a shared joint venture between Ch2m, Colas and Costain which carries out maintenance and repairs on motorways and trunk roads on behalf of Highways England.